Impairments Detailed in Abuse Trial

By EVELYN NIEVES,

Published: December 24, 1992

NEWARK, Dec. 23—
Over more than 10 years, the 21-year-old woman at the center of the Glen Ridge sex assault trial has been variously described by psychiatric experts as "neurologically impaired," "severely retarded" and having "a high level of functioning that precludes mental retardation."

The diagnoses, made by school psychiatrists, pediatricians and other educational and psychological experts, were revealed during cross-examination of a psychiatrist who was a prosecution witness. The psychiatrist, Dr. Gerald Meyerhoff, has concluded that the young woman is "mentally defective," and he said he used information in the various reports from the woman's school years to assist him in his evaluation.

During the cross-examination, Dr. Meyerhoff explained that of the reports he read that helped him arrive at his diagnosis, "only one spoke of academic promise."

"All the others," he said, "talked about significant deficiencies." Knew or Should Have Known

Four defendants, Bryant Grober, 21, Christopher Archer, 20, and the fraternal twins Kyle and Kevin Scherzer, 21, are charged with forcing or coercing the young woman into various sex acts, including penetration with a broom handle and a fungo baseball bat on March 1, 1989. The woman was 17 at the time. Prosecutors charge that the four former Glen Ridge High School football players knew or should have known that the young woman was mentally defective and therefore incapable of consenting to the acts under the law.

Louis Esposito, who represents Kyle Scherzer, led Dr. Meyerhoff on a reading of reports dating from March 3, 1977, in which a pediatrician diagnosed neurological impairment.

Standing next to the witness, Mr. Esposito would read part of a report and ask the doctor if the reading was correct. The doctor would say, "That's what he wrote" or "That's what it says."

Mr. Esposito read excerpts from reports including one dated May 29, 1979, that described her as a "youngster with at least average intelligence," but with some learning disabilities; as having "a high level of functioning" (June 8, 1981) and as having a performance I.Q. of 49 (Dec. 15, 1987). 'Very Dramatic Statement'

The excerpted reports differed on her degree of social skills and adaptability, but most excerpts said she had some degree of neurological impairment.

Dr. Meyerhoff strongly disagreed with a diagnosis made by an intern and signed by an attending physician that the young woman's intelligence "precluded mental retardation."

"It is a very dramatic statement to make," he said.

The defense seemed to be suggesting both that Dr. Meyerhoff had based his conclusions about the young woman on selective reading of the reports and that his opinion could not be taken as "science."

"None of these people are chopped liver sandwiches," Mr. Esposito said of the evaluators. "These people are all to one degree professionals." Interpreting Phone Call

The psychiatrist, who interviewed the woman twice for a total of about three hours, had said he relied on experts for some information, like her I.Q. score. But he contended that he had become adept in many instances in guessing I.Q. scores within seven or eight points.

The rest of the cross-examination focused on Dr. Meyerhoff's interpretations of a taped phone conversation between the woman and a teammate on the Glen Ridge girls' basketball team. The conversation was secretly taped by the other woman, Mari Carmen Ferraez, who once dated Kyle Scherzer, in an attempt to help the defendants, and focuses on the incident in the Scherzer basement.

Miss Ferraez, now 21, pleaded guilty to witness tampering and is in a pretrial intervention program.

On the tapes, the young woman asks Miss Ferraez if she is sure her father is not listening to the conversation. Alan Zegas, the lawyer for Christopher Archer, asked Dr. Meyerhoff if that didn't suggest that the woman had a concept of morality. He responded that it meant she knew that "it was about a subject forbidden to her -- sexuality and its accouterments" and that she feared disclosure. Being Nice to a Friend

Mr. Zegas then asked if the woman's descriptions of the incident in the Scherzer basement as pleasurable didn't contradict the doctor's finding of her as "asexual."

"I believe she is attempting to ingratiate herself with her newfound friend," Dr. Meyerhoff replied.

"No," Dr. Meyerhoff replied, adding that he relied on the categorization given by people from the prosecutor's office that the relationship was not "regular." He conceded he had not known that Miss Ferraez regularly gave the woman rides home from basketball practice.

It was the fourth day of cross-examination for the psychiatrist, a former chief of child psychiatry at Bergen Pines County Hospital in Paramus, N.J. He is to remain on the stand when the trial, now in its 11th week, resumes on Jan. 4.